The day 2 at ad:tech was another day of learning and also involved great discussions on Social Commerce and presentations on metrics with special reference to Social Media. There was a track on Spotlight, one on Mobile marketing and ofcourse on Search too.

The first keynote of the day was that of Pete Blackshaw, Global Head of Digital Marketing and Social Media, Nestle.

Prior to his being on stage, we were treated to a wonderful walk through of the last day’s events and learnings and even a look at the exhibition area by our Brad Berens who incidentally has become a rage for his special Good Morning New Delhi! Some of the Twitteratii felt he was giving our very own Vidya Balan of Lage Raho Munnabhai a run for her money – viz her Good Morning Mumbai!

As Pete started the sheer statistics of Maggi being sold than 1.2 Billion packs became quite a rage, I saw that was unintended but when it was compared to Indian population as a number it was in the news. He also unveiled what Nestle was doing differently with regards to the digital and how corporate communication is also being run under digital it makes for interesting take out. As he rolled out his ideas on Small is the new big in digital marketing, he also made it a point to reiterate that basics still matter in digital and social.

The Digital and social media strategy at Nestle is based on excellence in listening, engaging and inspiring. Moreover he also said that Nestle plans its digital strategy on the local scale and makes it a success. The strength has been that of decentralizing the digital marketing programme and it has been able to deliver excellent results across.

They call it Brand Building the Nestle Way – BBNW.

As the screens are getting smaller or say our screens are shrinking, we need to think harder about simplifying our messaging and serving the consumer. He also said the whole process got to be social by design. It had to be 24/7 sense and respond a tactical way to be engaging a consumer.

When the screens get smaller it is also a big challenge to get the attention span to yourself. He shared one of the most important point on a successful mobile phone application – it has to provide rich content, excellent service and consumer focus. His keynote brought back some of the boring basics to be taken seriously, and more so because in digital its the basics which still matter.

In one of the game changing context he said ‘Think about a way to take your big ideas on other media to digital. Digital strategy for any brand should not be isolated.”

As he concluded he was on target when he said ‘shrink, serve and simplify, and yes its great time to be in Marketing’. I am sure everyone out there seconded this statement and yes Pete made a lasting impression to kick start the days’s proceedings in a way that was unique to Pete and the brand Nestle.

The next speaker was Satyan Gajwani, Director, New Media, The Times Group with his keynote on the evolution of content, commerce and entertainment in the digital world.

He took us on a journey of how the Times Group was instrumental in identifying the consumer connect and of late has been having a great effort fructify with Gaana.com being a part of FB apps. He also said that now everything has to go social it has to be inherent by design and we cannot have two different stand alone strategies even when its content. With the social media becoming all pervasive, any initiative in digital has to be Social by design and cannot be a plug-in anymore.

It was true that inspite of low internet speeds videos still command a large chunk of the broadband traffic. This was very true of cricket videos being closely followed during important matches – especially IPL.

IPL he said will have a greater impact this year because it will have a lot of engaging features.

Satyan also unveiled the new initiative of TIL in BoxTV.com an answer to Hulu in India. He said that Indians have a penchant for watching online videos and it is only increasing day by day. If we can get them socially engaged with the same, it will be a great way to go futuristic.

He also said that there was a relook in the ecommerce part of the service offering and it could even make people sit up and take notice in the days to come. A visually seamless and thought provoking presentation from Satyan, and the day has had its perfect start.

The session on Mobile marketing gave real insights on how they need to actually see the fit in the first place, apart from SMS to making it an engaging platform. The marketers needed more of innovative solutions to engage and also how we could make it happen with different screens and the need to have a solution cut across the platforms.

In the next presentation session we were treated to extensive use of mobile application on retail and in-store and extended location based advertising using mobile.

So the mobile with its ever increasing penetration especially with smart phones or even with blue tooth connectivity can make a lot of difference while being on the move or sometimes being in store. Lot of retail brands have experienced successful engagement opportunities with some of the service providers with blue tooth and some have used Augmentative Reality to awesome effect and results.

Days are not far when shopping will be socially relevant and will be happening on the move may be time targeted to the core so as to make it absolutely engaging experience. You could be asked for a choice to order from a menu as you pass by a restaurant around noon! Chances are, if you updated you are ‘hungry’ you could get a call from one of those people delivering pizza near you!

During the Spotlight session, we saw how Angels are making their contribution in a fast growing internet economy if I may say so, and their contributions in terms of engaging with the startups has raised the high stakes game to better VC funding for the companies.

That will change the complexion of the game in terms of more angels coming in and making it easier for VCs to identify and support such ventures.

We also had a discussion on B2B marketing strategies and we saw how B2B brands are leveraging the internet and making successful contributions to the marketing plan. The targeting capabilities are making it easier for the B2B marketers to use the power of internet and deliver value in terms of leads sometimes build brands among the most important users.

The afternoon sessions on Social and Search was a mix of wonderful panel discussion and a presentation session.

The Social going commerce or Social commerce in the times of Facebook and twitter and now the coming of Pinterest will surely make it easy for brands to sell. The interesting part is that the shopping has also gone social in a way to make for an interesting ideal context wherein the influencers are friends and sometimes friends of friends.

The last word on whether we would love to do shopping on Facebook has not been said as yet and I think we will wait here in India to see if the global leads will confirm the users would love to keep shopping social but not entirely do shopping on Facebook.

The social media metrics getting an upper hand with the engagement being given importance was the key take way during the presentation on Social media metrics and measurement. Likes on a brand page do not translate to engagement or social talking in real sense. So if a brand x can garner 1000 likes and has over 900 talking about it then the ration of engagement is far higher than having 10000 likes and 10 people talking about it. Ofcourse the metrics is also looking at how positive and negative the influences have been in the social media which are now Facebook, twitter, discussion forums etc.

On the other side of Search we could see that even search is going social, simply because we find lot of people in the social side of the internet.

We saw how a decision like buying a car from a search would eventually become social with so many Facebook comments to twitter updates to reviews will make it more social in the days to come, though of course the starting point would have been search.

A very busy day for conferencing with loads of take away value to implement and experiment.

The final part of the day was the penultimate Keynote from Microsoft by Richard Dunmall, VP, Global Accounts & Agencies, Microsoft Advertising, finally to be followed by Kent Wertime of O & M Japan.

Richard took us on a journey of exploring the future of storytelling. Story telling as I see it will not be interesting unless it engages the user and most importantly how they can make the right connect for the brands to see it.

With Kinect and other gaming technology it has become all pervasive to be a part of everyone’s lives and we could see all the technology waiting to tell us stories of ourselves and the brand in the days to come. He extensively spoke about how everyone’s a storyteller and how digital is enabling them to do that. The future is digitally connected with humans and interacting things being the message and the message if I am put it that way.

The best is the human endeavour of touch and feel is getting translated to a mass technology and it will change the way we interact in the near future making human experience all the more important.

It ‘s all about you and how that is going to be the central point around which we have to make all our stories happen with the right people, at the right time and at the right place.

We also had a glimpse of what Kinect could do to engage brands and most importantly the possibilities are endless.

He took us on why this is the age of digital and the marketing will be called digimarketing in the days to come and what’s in store for the future.

Simply put the marketing has shifted from the brands being the center to consumers being in the center of the communication. Content will be the key again and it will possibly the most important part for any brand to connect with its consumers.

You cannot discard social since it will be at the center again. How we value data will also make it important for the brands to engage and how well can we mine them to use for the predictive models to tracking personal habits will be the key.

Its also about managing the consumer trust, making us go back in time on the basic premise that trust is essential in any communication.

Those were absolutely wonderful way to put across some of the most important points to ponder when we think digital is all about so many creative ways and engagement, but the basics remains the same. Those are all abstract forms for example in trust and engagement being one and another after effect.

A class of a presentation from an industry veteran brought the curtains down on what was absolutely engaging event for the digital marketers in the country and what ad:tech across the world is all about.

So will see you all next ad:tech soon in March 2013 and before that don’t forget ad:tech Bangalore makes a debut in September…

R Senthilkumar

This is the third of the 3 part article which appeared in imediaconnection.in you can see the original article here.

ad:tech New Delhi had changed the context for the digital fraternity in India with its first edition last year in April 2011. It still has the reminiscences of the keynotes of Babs Rangaiah of Unilever to David Fischer of FB to Sav of Digitas UK. It had left an indelible imagery on what is in store for the future. Continuing the trend and increasing the learning curve, the second edition of ad:tech New Delhi started with a Master Class on day zero on Search and Social.

The Master Class was organized in association with the Knowledge partner Communicate 2. The Master Class with 7 sessions gave a deep understanding on Search and Social and how it can be applied in real time and enriched the participants with enough practical knowledge to try them on their own.

Here’s a round up of the days learning’s…

Search is indispensable at every move for the brand to be present when they are being searched for even if not directly. It would also make great for brands to be present as content providers in times of searches so that they engage with the prospect or a consumer online in the way they choose to.

Content has become the King and the Queen, that remains the uncontested statement with all the brands and publishers looking to make content the center of all their communication. It goes without saying if we have content then of course there is rise in engagement. One of the best use of content was the Google adwords FAQ page. That according to me is a master stroke by the people who do what they talk, or walk the talk.

Its not just our website these days, there are many manifestations of the brand communication which is today spread across the spectrum with search and social integrated, the search apart, we have Facebook, twitter, Google Pages etc. How often have we devised a strategy to be in line with the brand communicates across the platforms across every point of communication. It is most important for brands to sync all these together in a way that consumers get a feel of the brand and engage constructively for raising their brand equity.

Reputation management has become very important in the literal sense because of online social platforms, and listening on Social media will be imperative because the net id going to have a wider impact than ever before. We have also seen some of the brands being online and how the listening has not exactly been the way it should be. Going forward there will be a lot of traction in terms of customer experience management online especially the social media. For sure an angry customer today has only this to do update his status with a tag to the brand experience good or bad.

One of the most important unveiling infact was that of YouTube presentation wherein the content owner can own his right and YouTube will search for any usage of the content across the network. This is done by a video search and I think the algorithm searches the video in parts and lists if there are videos that are similar. This is an ideal situation where in the piracy will be checked and of course the content creators get their due with respect to their work and monetize the same in due course.

Ofcourse the video is going to be big and in a way will lead the brands to own content than ever before. Collaborative effort will be in the making like that of Coke Studios by MTV.

Thanks to the knowledge partner Communicate 2 for their handling of the session and a great kick start to the ad:tech New Delhi 2012.

R Senthilkumar

This is the first part of the 3 part article which appeared in imediaconnection.in, you can see the original article here

ad:tech New Delhi 2012, the digital marketing, media and advertising event to be held in February, has announced a line-up of its first three panel tracks on Brand Strategy, Performance and Venture Capital.

Sharing his views on the panel discussions announced so far, Rammohan Sundaram, event chairman, ad:tech India and founder, chief executive officer and managing director, Networkplay Media, said, “Panel discussions spur great creative brainstorming and often yield innovative solutions to issues at hand. We have handpicked a roster of industry leaders from India who will add immense value to the ad:tech event brand that matches our global reputation as the world’s leading digital marketing event. We had earlier announced a dazzling preview of some of our keynote speakers from PepsiCo, LinkedIn, comScore, The Times Group and Ogilvy, and will be soon announcing more exciting panels and presentations.”

With more and more brands doubling up to play the role of publishers, the second panel discussion, moderated by Ravi Kiran, former chief executive officer, South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, will explore how branded content can be combined with a killer marketing strategy. Panelists in this session will include Wasim Basir, director, Integrated Marketing Communication, Coca Cola India and South West Asia; Atit Mehta, country media manager, Hindustan Unilever Limited; Nikhil Rungta, country marketing head, Google India; and, Aditya Swamy, executive vice president and business head, MTV India.

Under the track ‘Performance’, the panel session titled, ‘Performance Marketing: Display Matters’ will be moderated by GroupM South Asia’s managing partner, Tushar Vyas, will look at how new display optimisation technologies and next-generation ad exchanges are offering fresh take on display advertising that historically lacked the targeted pricing, placement, and ROI of Search. Insightful views will also be shared by industry stalwarts including Anisha Singh, founder and chief executive officer, mydala.com, Robbie Hills, head of Media Technology – South East Asia and India, Head of Rich Media – Asia Pacific, Google Inc., Gulshan Verma, vice president and country head – India and North America, Komli Media, and Karan Gupta, managing director, Affinity.

The second panel in this track will be themed on ‘Retargeting/Remarketing’ and will feature Siddharth Puri, business head, Tyroo Direct and Gourav Chindlur, co-founder and chief operating officer, Vizury, who will delve into getting the right returns on paid search and SEO through technology with a clear call to action for consumers.

The third track is titled ‘Spotlight’ and features an array of speakers on venture capital. Since digital marketing is still in its early years in India, angel investors play a crucial role in giving the right launch pad to enterprising start-ups. This panel discussion will explore the importance of angels for developing strong businesses that make great venture capital investments. It will showcase views from Alok Mittal, managing director, Canaan India, Samir Kumar, managing director, Inventus, Sarbvir Singh, managing director, Capital18, Vinay Sanghi, promoter and chief executive officer, MXC Solutions and Sateesh Andra, venture partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ).

Till last year India’s digital fraternity used to attend ad:tech a global digital marketing event away from India. It is a place for the digital marketing professionals to get a sense of what is happening and how technology is changing and the way brands are positioning themselves with an increasing digital mass audience, but this changed with the 1st edition in New Delhi last April. The event is a brand in itself with a decade of keeping abreast of the changes happening in the technology side of business and marketing and has been in the forefront leading the challenge in the internet and digital industry.

At the inaugural Indian edition, we saw some of the best technology in practice being displayed and some of the innovations showcased on internet and mobile and digital as a whole. India with its ever increasing internet population which at presently an estimated 120 Million active users and fast growing into the largest medium to which advertisers can target their marketing communication. The challenge it proposes is the interactivity and the closeness, in social media front has been a steep learning curve. Brands will have to go social and be in the midst of the mind space with more time spent on the Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. The content has become the king and for brands the first time it has given them an opportunity to own the content as media itself.

The event also brought into light how technologists are turning creative directors with creative and engaging mobile applications and augmented reality making its presence in the traditional domain. A great amount of exposure and learning is in store at ad:tech New Delhi where the best of technology brands and marketing case studies are shared with the audience. Thus making it possible for others in the digital space to embrace the technical knowhow and exploit it to engage with the consumer, be it on social, search or mobile.

It’s a new era where marketing meets technology is the buzzword and ad:tech is poised to take it to the next level in India. Mobile with its penetration and mass reach will also be a challenge for brands to engage effectively. The smart phones which are growing fast with the prices going south and features being loaded by the minute will soon become the most important medium. Mobile applications fondly called apps are changing the way people use their phones from being a simple communication device to an engaging branding console. Getting to make the best use of the technology and the latest in location based services which is making a lot of advancement in making a connect to the user at a particular location making him glocally available for brands to communicate.

So the game is on the most empowered consumer today because of his being connected and internet being available on multiple platforms the desktop, his laptop, the mobile and the all new internet powered TV. Following him wherever he goes and that too without being seen as intrusive, a marketing miracle which will be a success to replicate.

So, while the reach of the digital has removed the concept of “distance” with a keystroke or a touch, it’s never been more important to physically connect with friends, colleagues, business associates, trade journalists and the growing base of marketing experts that have come to represent ad:tech’s expanding network.

With such a background, ad:tech New Delhi’s 2nd edition in February 2012 will be a platform for all stakeholders to get updated, share, network and do business.

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